“Okay, spill it! Why were you following us?!”

There we were. Standing around a strange girl who fell out of the sky with Grimhilda constantly pestering her with questions until she broke. We were in the forest and surrounded by the tall trees, about five feet away from the main road, so to not draw attention from any of the passerby’s for what we were about to do.

“Please! I’m sorry for stalking you all! Just let me go and we can forget this whole thing ever happened!” pleaded the girl with tears in her eyes.

12-minutes-ago. Right after the incident, the girl became fidgeted and started backing away from us.

She muttered something about “Being discovered”, which made us think she’d been following us. She’d tried to escape, running with quick speed like a rabbit, but Grimhilda was able to tackle her to the ground. the girl was able to put up a fight, kicking and struggling to push the dwarf girl off of her. I even heard Grimhilda screamed as the strange girl bit her.

Luckily, the dwarf girl was able to easily overpower her while producing rope that seemed too big to fit in her backpack. Now the girl was tied up and ready for questioning.

The girl was terrified. She trembled as the ropes vibrated around her body. Grimhilda’s terrifying gaze would bring shivers down her spine as she continued to harass her. Even the square-shaped helixes on her ears began to shake also.

“You better start talking or you’re not going to see the light of day, Halfling! You know how we dwarves like to dig!” Grimhilda threatened with a devious grin.

I interjected in a calm tone, “Hey, Hilda. Don’t you think you’re taking this a little too far?”

“Not really. I haven’t even gotten to the part that I was going to bury her up to her neck in dirt in the middle of nowhere for the wild animals to devour her head,” Grimhilda retorted.

The Halfling girl was freaking out as she started trembling more than before while beads of sweat fell from her face.

“Okay! Okay! I’ll tell you everything! Just, please, get this crazy dwarf girl away from me!” the Halfling girl pleaded with sobbing breath.

The three of us turned back to the girl and looked flabbergasted. Grimhilda, on the other hand, just flashed a smug grin with her arms crossed directly at me. I just deadpanned in response.

After we untied the Halfling girl, we waited for her to make a run for it since she now had the opportunity to escape. Fortunately for us, she just stayed still with a blank expression on her face.

“What?” she asked.

She noticed the paused stares we were giving her as she tilted her head to the side.

Arching an eyebrow, I replied, “Nothing. We were just expecting you to…you know, escape?”

She puffed her cheeks and scowled in offense while crossing both arms over her chest. She argued, “How rude! We Halflings keep our promise! If I say I’m going to tell you everything, then that means I’m going to tell you’ all!”

She coughed in her hand before she regained her composure. Then she introduced herself, “My name is Leni Faldoy and I am an agent of the Human Coalition.”

My face glared at the mentioning of that name

Leni continued, “I was sent by the Council to discreetly follow you and monitor you to determine if you are the one.”

“The one what?” I inquired.

“The one who was chosen to be the messiah, of course! The one destined to save the world from the Dark Lord!” Leni’s tone changed from a formal voice to that of excitement. “Honestly, I’m just so delighted to finally meet you! It is an honor to be in your presence!” her eyes lit up with sparkles in her pupils. Getting up off her stump, she kneeled down before me like a subject kneeling before her king.

I was starting to get uncomfortable. I didn’t know how to react. Snapping out of my perturbed stance, my eyes widened and my mouth fell agape. I inquired, “Still, what does saving the world have to do with me? How am I the messiah?”

“You’re the messiah because the Council was the one who summoned you,” she stated straightforwardly.

My face completely fell blank from hearing that and I became flabbergasted. My tone became aggressive as I blurted out, “You’re the reason why I’m in this world?!”

I realized my words and turned back to Keya and Grimhilda who were staring at me with confusion.

“What do you mean ‘in this world’?” Keya questioned.

I wanted to come up with an excuse. Maybe, something to make her forget what I had said, but it was too late and I held on to that charade for far too long.

Taking a deep breath, I looked Keya straight in the eye and confessed, “I don’t have amnesia and I’m not from this world. I’m from another world called ‘Earth’ and I was brought here through magical means I don’t even know how.”

It felt like an entire weight was lifted off of my shoulders. Frankly, even if Leni hadn’t showed up, Keya would have figured out sooner, or later. She is a smart girl, to be precise.

Keya’s eyes scowled. She walked up to me with such encroachment before raising her hand. Smack! The left side of my face stung. I didn’t flinch because I knew I deserved it. Looking back at Keya, I saw that in her eyes she was hurt and that’s understandable. Then she proceeded to trot pass me and further into the forest.

Reaching out my hand, I tried to stop her until I felt something tugging at my side. Looking down, I saw Grimhilda shaking her head at me.

She said somberly, “Give her time to cool off, Akio. Betrayal is the one thing a girl has difficulty to handle.” Then her expression changed to a snicker. She added, “Honestly, you told her you had amnesia and didn’t tell her the truth that you were a visitor from another world?”

I replied, “If I had told her the truth, she wouldn’t believe me and assumed that I was crazy.” My tone was monotonous while I gave the dwarf girl a deadpanned stare.

Grimhilda held her smirk for a minute, but soon dropped it as she grimaced and rubbed the back of her neck. She remarked, “When you put it that way, it does make since to lie.”

I nodded.

Suddenly, we both turned to Leni with raised eyebrows, watching her standing still with her arms hanging down as she gave us a perplexing look.

“By the way, what are we going to do with her,” Grimhilda asked. She pointed at the Halfling girl with a scowl.

Letting out a sigh, I sauntered over and stopped in front of the Halfling girl. I said sternly, “Have you confirmed that I’m really the messiah?”

“Yes. I believe you are, but it’s not my job to declare it,” she said.

“How do you know I’m what you say I am to be?”

She told me to look at my sword, which I unsheathed and examined. According to Leni, it belonged to the previous messiah that came before me and was left behind for anyone worthy of wielding it, which meant someone who was capable of taking down the booby-trap that was set up.

“What do you want from me?” I inquired.

“I want to bring you to the Human Coalition, so they can judge whether you truly are the messiah, or not.”

I remembered hearing that name since the goblin village incident and hearing it again only made me angrier. However, taking another deep breath, my tone became even more serious.

I said in an inquisitive manner, “If I go with you and see the Human Coalition, does that mean they’ll have the answers I need for why I’m here in the first place?”

At first, it seemed like I didn’t care, but everything I had endured, it made me wonder my purpose in this world. I knew how I got here, but I didn’t know why I was here.

“The Representatives who run the Human Coalition will tell you everything you need to know,” Leni nodded. A light grin grew on her face as a sober expression appeared. “However, to receive the answers you seek, you must prove to them that you are the messiah, yourself. My word alone is not good enough because I am just a mere scout.”

“How would I prove to them?”

“You must take a series of tests to show them. Are you certain you want to meet with them?”

I nodded. The smile on Leni grew wider.

“Excellent! Now, I won’t get punish for failing my mission!” she started clapping her hands ecstatically like a happy child.

At that moment, I was starting to have second thoughts, but I managed to put it aside, for now. Suddenly, I noticed the land was starting to get dark. I looked up in the sky and saw the sun setting over the horizon.

“We’ll be setting up camp here. Grimhilda, watch after Leni,” I ordered in a passive manner. I started walking into the forest without looking back to the Dwarf girl.

I heard Grimhilda respond quizzically, “What are you going to do?!” her tone became louder as I distanced further.

“I’m going to find Keya!”